It has previously been proposed--see German Patent Publication DE-AS No. 23 02 261--that the inking system applies ink over two roller trains to an ink application roller or to ink application rollers. One of the rollers of the ink train may, additionally, have wetting liquid applied thereto. Thus, this particular ink train will supply both ink as well as wetting liquid to the plate cylinder. Such an arrangement is suitable for numerous printing jobs, particularly if the subject does not tend to form ghosts, that is, if it is such that a large area of ink coverage is used. The possibility is retained to eliminate application of wetting liquid, typically water, by separating the water fountain system from the ink system by providing an intermediate roller, the position of the shaft of which can be changed. Upon such change-over, ink is applied only over the ink train to the plate cylinder, the other roller train being used exclusively to apply water to the plate cylinder. This arrangement can be used to good advantage to print subjects which tend to form ghosts, for example which have little printing ink content.
The arrangement has the disadvantage that, if ink and wetting liquid are to be applied separately to the plate cylinder, a portion of the roller train which is utilized to supply ink and to distribute ink thereover, is not used. This has the disadvantage that the ink which is being applied to the plate cylinder is not distributed sufficiently uniformly and is not applied in a layer which is sufficiently thin and at the same time uniform.